The cause of a SaskEnergy natural gas pipeline rupture that knocked out service in the Melfort area in January has been found.
The pipeline was hit by somebody using digging equipment in a field. While that hit didn’t break the pipeline immediately, it weakened it enough so that it ruptured over time. The hit happened sometime after 2015, when the pipeline was last inspected.
Casey MacLeod, a SaskEnergy spokesperson, said they sent all of the pieces of the ruptured pipeline to a lab in Calgary to determine what happened.
“Basically what they did was reassemble it like a puzzle so they could observe what the outside of the pipeline looked like and they also did some extensive testing with things like x-rays and electron microscopes and stuff like that,” she said. “What they found was that there were gouge marks on the outside of the pipeline similar to what would have been caused by a backhoe striking the pipeline at some point.”
The lab results will allow SaskEnergy to continue its investigation.
“Now that we have the that confirmed by this laboratory, now we’ll move forward to try to see if we can determine who did this.” MacLeod said.
Depending on what the investigation finds, those responsible could be billed for the repairs.
MacLeod said the incident is a good reminder that people who are digging – using backhoes, shovels or anything in between – should contact Sask. First Call to mark underground lines before they work.
“If at any point you make contact with a natural gas pipeline or even think you do, whether it causes a leak or not, please call us immediately and we’ll come out and give it a check,” she said. “If there is damage, if we can come out and proactively repair the damage, it’s a much simpler, quicker and cheaper process for everyone involved than something like this, where we have to react in an emergency scenario and make large scale repairs to the pipeline.”
